Well-Rounded Faculty

The talents and passions that BB&N teachers and staff bring to school each day are well chronicled in the smiling faces of students on all three campuses. But less obvious are the talents and pursuits that BB&N faculty turn to outside the classroom. Read on for a showcase of some varied interests that round out our teachers and staffers; after all, a well-rounded education starts with well-rounded teachers.

Michael Ewins, Middle School Science Teacher

The silverback gorilla ran directly up to Michael Ewins’ guide and slapped him. Obviously, the novice guide was too loud and close for the gorilla’s taste. “This kind of unequivocal communication,” Michael reports with a laugh, “is typical of the gorillas.” The giant gorilla didn’t intend to injure the guide. It was really just a “stop-what-you-are-doing” smack.

Read more about Michael in our winter Bulletin…

Binal Patel, Lower School Beginners Teacher

For weeks they practiced in secret: a dozen Lower School teachers and staff members trying to snap their fingers, shake their hips, and tap their feet just like their dance coach. Finally, it was showtime, and in the middle of it all, literally at the center of the dance, was Beginners teacher Binal Patel, her feet bare and hands swinging in the air.  

Read more about Binal in our winter Bulletin…

Chip Rollinson and Mark Fidler, Upper School Math Teachers

You might expect a couple of enthusiastic math teachers to come away from a Canada-to-Mexico biking expedition with a pannier full of trip-related statistics and problem sets. You know the type:“If cyclist A leaves Crescent City at 9 AM averaging 10 MPH and cyclist B, averaging 15 MPH, leaves at 9:30 AM….” To be sure, Mark Fidler and Chip Rollinson, Upper School teachers for 32 and 7 years, respectively, can readily reel off some numbers: 39 days (37 of them on their bikes); 2,004 miles; 54 miles averaged per day; 88 miles on their longest day; 3 worn-out tires; 14,400 hits on their blog. But impressive data aside, it’s clear that the less quantifiable details are the more consequential, lasting lessons of their border-to-border adventure.

Read more about Chip and Mark in our winter Bulletin…

Zoe Tarshis, Middle School English Teacher

Last summer, as Middle School English teacher Zoe Tarshis stood in the middle of the of the village of Dolina in Ukraine, she saw an old, wrinkled woman in a babushka approach excitedly. “I remember, I remember!” the woman exclaimed through the translator. What this diminutive, weathered, yet energetic woman (pictured below) had remembered was that she had been the daughter of the milkmaid who brought milk to the Pohoryles family daily just before they disappeared into hiding.

Read more about Zoe in our winter Bulletin…

Jo-Ann Lovejoy, Annual Giving Director

Like most first-time bee keepers, Jo-Ann Lovejoy chose her own bees. Walking into a warehouse, she scanned 150 wooden shoeboxes on the shelf, each containing a buzzing hive, and picked one out. But there’s another way to view Lovejoy’s bee-keeping baptism some 20 years ago. Just maybe, the bees picked her.

Read more about Jo-Ann in our winter Bulletin…

Gus Means, Middle School Math Teacher

Gus Means, a Middle School math teacher, needed a barn. The tractor, mower, and truck with plow as well as other equipment required to take care of his family’s 40-acre property in Essex had always been left outside about the place. So, with typical independence and determination, Gus set out to design and build a storage barn himself.

Read more about Gus in our winter Bulletin…